Wiki Women’s History Month Project

Add your voice to the world’s largest source of collaboratively-curated knowledge!

Wikipedia is often the first stop when people are looking to learn about a new topic, but around 85% of Wikipedia editors are men, and it’s sorely lacking in women’s history and representations. In honor of women’s history month, we’ll gather and learn how to edit Wikipedia articles and work together on creating and improving articles related to women’s history.

No prior knowledge is necessary! Librarians will be on hand with resources and suggestions. Wikipedia is perhaps best edited by those who are not “experts.” Although you are welcome to focus on a topic you are knowledgeable and/or passionate about, you can contribute key information with no previous experience on the subject.

Computers, topics and references will be provided, but you are also welcome to bring your own.

What can you do at the Event?
You can either begin an article or improve on an existing article. If you begin a new article, you are encouraged to start with a “stub” – just get down some verifiable basic facts with proper citations. You can then link to that article from any appropriate articles, add it to relevant projects, and encourage others to expand and improve upon it. There are also many ways to improve upon existing articles – by adding citations, improving grammar and readability, expanding important information on the subject, and linking to the article from relevant pages.

What article should you work on?
We will have resources available and suggested articles for two broad topics – Barnard history and Women’s Health (with a focus on history related to reproductive rights), but you are also welcome to work on an article or topic that is of interest to you which is not listed here, including class topics, thesis topics, or history that is personally relevant to you. For general background on the project and its criteria, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women%27s_History (though you can also work on things, such as more recent history, that fall outside this scope). Articles can be about a group of women, a specific woman, an event or an object related to women’s history (a book, a court case, a rally, a movement, an organization), or can involve adding information about women to existing topics (for example, adding additional information about women’s involvement in the Harlem Renaissance).

If you plan to attend, please register here to ensure access to the Digital Training Lab: